Craig Heberer writes...

My friend Steve Hueslbeck took this photo. That’s me, number 76 on the far left. This was a blistering hot and humid summer day in Wisconsin. When I walked the track early that morning I was sweating. Sitting on the starting line, the heat was brutal, but it was out of my mind. I was fully concentrated on getting a good hole shot; I didn’t. However, it looks like Scott Wallenberg (number 13) did worse! The dust was choking, just a few hundred feet up the track the visibility was less than 10 feet! It’s gratifying to look at this photo and see so many Monark riders captured in this one scene, to realize again what a gas it was to race, and to know some of these guys!

Craig S. Heberer
Duke University

Scott Wallenberg writes...

The date was 7-14-74 yes it was hot and sticky!

I was in the middle of a battle for the 100cc Slo-Pokes M/C Grand Prix title. A 13 race series with races held all over Wisconsin and Northen Illinois, this was considered the premier title to have in the Wisconsin-Illinois area. My main rival was Tim Miller on a Penton. Tim had finished 2nd in1973 to Monark rider Brent Euen. I finished 3rd in that year, missing 2 rounds due to a broken hand suffered while testing a new Torque Engineering downpipe and looping out when I grabbed a handful. ( Oh was my Dad mad!) Anyway back to this race.....This was round #7, I had 110 points and Tim had 105. Third was Monark rider Dean Glesh with 67 and Yamaha riders Tom Gallagher and Ron Josephson rounded out the top 5 with 67 and 34 points respectively. The track was at a snow ski resort called Sunburst in Kewaskum, Wisconsin. It ran up the ski hill and in front of the club house where you could watch from inside! It was a replacement track for the Slo-Pokes club as Elkhorn, Wisconsin their home track since 1968 was shut down for not filing correct permits. It was the second and final time Sunburst was used. The previous race there was on 5-26 and I threw a rod through the cases and crashed hard! The week after that I also DNF'd at Aztalan. Fortunately I turned it around and won the next 2 rounds at Verona, WI and Byron, IL to regain the points lead. At this race I won the first moto handily and was feeling pretty good about making it 3 wins in a row. However, in the second moto, I missed a shift badly off the starting line and it was so dusty I could not see a thing for a long time. I tried to charge through the dust and crashed a few times trying to catch up.

Looking at the photo, My Monark buddy Steve Merkel got the hole shot. The overall winner was Joey Pollow on a Suzuki.( Joey is directly behind me in the photo. Monark Rider #7 Dean Glesh was 2nd. 3rd went to George Idzikowski. 4th was Penton rider and my main rival Tim Miller. I finished 1-10 for 5th overall. So Tim only picked up a point on me that day.

I also rode the 125 class and got a 3-3 for 2nd overall behind fellow E&J Cycle Monark rider Eric Skrudland who went 1-1. A picture from that day on my 125 is posted at http://www.vintagemonark.com/images/inaction/ScottatSunburst.jpg So how did the rest of the series pan out? It went down to me and Tim Miller virtually tied on points at the final round at Maplehurst Cycle Park on October 7th. What happened? Stay tuned! Scott

Scott Wallenberg
Publisher Racer X/Road Racer X